Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/544

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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

and by second ; Dorothy, Virginia, and Emma Lou Sperry. 3. Washington Eliot Langley, born February 22, i860, in Knox- ville, Tennessee ; married Sarah Ridgeley, and has children : Langley, Lawrence, Albert, Joseph, August. Alexander, William, Susan and Sarah. 4. Virginia Maria, born i8(5i, in Knoxville ; married August Wieden- bach, and has daughters : Clara Augusta, Margaret and Ernestine. 5. Thomas Alex- ander, born July, 1863, in Knoxville ; mar- ried Kate Major, and has children: Kather- ine, Thomas Alexander, Stuart Major, and Margery. 6. Louis, died at the age of six- teen years.

Joseph Austin Sperry, eldest son of Jacob Austin Sperry, M. D., attended the public schools of Plainfield, New Jersey, and after leaving school was employed for a short time in a banking and brokerage office on Wall street. New York City. He was pos- sessed of commercial instinct, and made rapid advancement in learning the ways of business. For some time he was a clerk for his uncle in a retail general merchandise store at Winchester, Virginia. In 1885 he went to New York City and became con- nected with a mercantile house as traveling salesman, continuing two years. The death of his uncle at this time caused him to re- turn to Winchester. Virginia, where he was employed in winding up his uncle's busi- ness affairs. Having completed this matter to the satisfaction of the heirs and all con- cerned, he again went to New York City and became associated with the Thomas H. Sperry Company, of that city, conducting a trading stamp business. His previous busi- ness experience, and his industry and fidel- ity gained him promotion in this establish- ment, in which he is now territorial manager for the United States. He is a member of Aqua Lodge, No. 129, Free and Accepted Masons, of Cranford, New Jersey, in which town he makes his home. Mr. Sperry has taken all the degrees in Free Masonry up to and including the thirty-second degree, and is also a member of the Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of Elks, and of New York Chapter, Sons of the Revolution. He is affiliated with the Protestant Episcopal church, and has always been allied politi- cally with the Democratic party.

He married, in August, 1883, Ella Bushnell, daughter of John and Margaret (Eichelber- ger) Bushnell, born September 23, 1856, in

Winchester, Virginia, and they are the par- ents of two children: i. Lottie, born May, 1884, in Charlestown, West Virginia, now the wife of Austin F. Dohrman, of Cranford, New Jersey. 2. William Miller, born July, 1887, in Jersey City, New Jersey, graduated from Cornell University in 1912, LL. B., now an attorney-at-law.

Gaines Family. The first Gaines of whom there is record in King and Queen county, Virginia, is in the vestry book of Stratton Major parish under date of February 27, 1766. The entry is as follows: "Harry Gaines, Gent, engaged to build the church on the old field belonging to Richard Cor- bin, Esq., called Goliath tield." On March 4, 1768, the vestry received the church built by Major Harry Gaines, deceased. In Hen- ning"s Statutes at Large of Virginia, Febru- ^O'. 1759. the followmg appears: Harry Gaines, Gent, is appointed trustee of the Pamunky Indians, and October 30, 1769, Harry Gaines subscribed one pound annual- ly for eight years as a premium for the best wines.

Harry Gaines (probably son of above), brother of William Fleming Gaines, of "Greenway," King William county, and of Robert Gaines, of the "White House," King and yueen county, lived at "Providence" and died in 1789.' He was a member of the house of burgesses and was a man of prominence. He married Elizabeth Hern- don. They had the following children: Benjamin, see forward, Harry, Beverly,. William Fleming, Martha, Elizabeth Hern- don, John.

Benjamin Gaines, of "Plain Dealing," son of Harry and Elizabeth (HerndonJ Gaines, married Sallie Garlick, daughter of Camm Garlick (see Garlick). Their children were as follows: Mary Ann, married a Gaines; Myra, married a Carlton ; Sarah Jane, see forward ; Dr. William F.

Sarah Jane Gaines, daughter of Benjamin and Sallie (Garlick) Gaines, married Major John H. Steger, and had issue: John O., married Mary Pendleton Cooke ; Lucilla Stanley, see forward ; Sallie Gaines, mar- ried John S. Hardaway ; Mary, married Wil- liam Meade; Nannie, married Charles H. Winston; Roger Williams, married Georg- ianna Carlton ; Kate, married Edmund Har- rison.

Lucilla Stanley Steger, daughter of Major